Summary. The term “Zakopiański Style” was introduced by Stanisław Witkiewicz (1851-1915) mainly for the vernacular architecture – he met in Zakopane and its surrounding – as a part of
a wider phenomenon called the mountaineers way of life. This specific type of culture, was created by people loving freedom and having the law in contempt. In spite to the high level of folklore and art of architecture, such a “style” brings very bad results in the wider scale of open landscape. The lawlessness or even lack of plan creates sprawl in the most valuable part of the mountainous region. What worse, such a way of life has been exported to the other parts of Poland. Very often we explain it as a reaction to the long lasting period of central planning system and centrally governed economy. Now we have democracy and free market economy, but nevertheless the lobbying oriented to the development without plan is strong enough to carry the suitable law ordinances in our parliament.